SEC, UK FSA Sign Landmark Regulatory Cooperation Arrangement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2006-36

Washington, D.C., March 14, 2006  The Securities and Exchange Commission and the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority signed a comprehensive arrangement today to increase cooperation in market oversight and supervision.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and UK FSA Chief Executive Officer John Tiner executed the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation, Cooperation and the Exchange of Information Related to the Supervision of Financial Services Firms and Market Oversight at a meeting at SEC headquarters in Washington. This landmark arrangement will facilitate the exchange of confidential supervisory information currently collected by both regulators.

Chairman Cox said, “This agreement formalizes the already robust collaboration between the SEC and the FSA. Both the SEC and the FSA share a commitment to keeping our markets open, fair, transparent, and sound under constantly changing circumstances. The additional tools for information exchange that we will gain from this arrangement will enhance our mutual ability to oversee the world’s largest securities firms and markets. This arrangement also facilitates the SEC’s new role as a consolidated supervisor of globally active US investment banks. The information sharing arrangements we are formalizing today will help insure that the SEC’s supervision of these firms is as effective as possible.”

Ethiopis Tafara, Director of the SEC’s Office of International Affairs, said, “The document signed today represents a new generation of cooperation between securities regulators. The Commission has long been a leader in cooperative securities enforcement. Formalized information-sharing helps the Commission establish clear institutional lines of communication and a means of promoting efficiency and predictability in our international cooperative efforts. In view of the growing globalization of the world’s financial markets and the proliferation of globally active financial services firms, including large complex financial conglomerates, establishing and maintaining strong relationships and cooperative efforts with our counterparts in the area of supervision and oversight, in addition to enforcement, is becoming equally important. We are extremely pleased to take that next step here today with the UK FSA, and look forward to exploring similar arrangements with other counterparts in the near future.”

Among other things, the arrangement provides for exchange of information about regulated entities and investment banking groups that operate both in the United States and the United Kingdom.